Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Section of Forensic Psychology, Maastricht University.
Department of Psychology, City, University of London.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2019 Nov;14(6):1072-1095. doi: 10.1177/1745691619862306. Epub 2019 Oct 4.
Can purely psychological trauma lead to a complete blockage of autobiographical memories? This long-standing question about the existence of repressed memories has been at the heart of one of the most heated debates in modern psychology. These so-called memory wars originated in the 1990s, and many scholars have assumed that they are over. We demonstrate that this assumption is incorrect and that the controversial issue of repressed memories is alive and well and may even be on the rise. We review converging research and data from legal cases indicating that the topic of repressed memories remains active in clinical, legal, and academic settings. We show that the belief in repressed memories occurs on a nontrivial scale (58%) and appears to have increased among clinical psychologists since the 1990s. We also demonstrate that the scientifically controversial concept of dissociative amnesia, which we argue is a substitute term for memory repression, has gained in popularity. Finally, we review work on the adverse side effects of certain psychotherapeutic techniques, some of which may be linked to the recovery of repressed memories. The memory wars have not vanished. They have continued to endure and contribute to potentially damaging consequences in clinical, legal, and academic contexts.
纯粹的心理创伤能否导致自传体记忆完全阻断？关于是否存在压抑记忆这一长期存在的问题一直是现代心理学中最激烈争论之一的核心。这些所谓的记忆战争起源于 20 世纪 90 年代，许多学者认为它们已经结束。我们证明这种假设是不正确的，被争议的压抑记忆问题仍然存在，甚至可能正在上升。我们回顾了来自法律案件的趋同研究和数据，这些数据表明压抑记忆的话题在临床、法律和学术环境中仍然活跃。我们表明，对压抑记忆的信念在相当大的程度上存在（58%），并且自 20 世纪 90 年代以来，临床心理学家中的这种信念似乎有所增加。我们还表明，我们认为是压抑记忆替代术语的分离性遗忘这一具有科学争议的概念已经变得流行起来。最后，我们回顾了某些心理治疗技术的不良副作用的工作，其中一些可能与压抑记忆的恢复有关。记忆战争并未消失。它们继续存在，并在临床、法律和学术环境中导致潜在的破坏性后果。
